If late-season rains hold off until the last grapes are picked, a quality harvest will come just as the state's 2012 vintage wines hit the market.

"Those wines are pretty darn good," said Harvey Steiman, who covers the state for Wine Spectator magazine. "It's looking to me as if 2012 can be the ideal Oregon vintage."

But others, including Bill Hatcher, a partner at A to Z Wineworks in Newberg, see possible trouble ahead, pointing to a decadelong trend of production gradually outpacing sales of Oregon wine. The fact that new vineyards continue to be planted here, despite growing inventory, is worrisome, he said.

"Priced out of California, Oregon is being overrun by dilettantes," he said. "They are rapidly putting the ownership of vineyard land out of the reach of the artisanal craft wineries that personify and underwrite the identity of Oregon winemaking."